MNsure trying to fix 'life event' changes backlog

ST. PAUL – Minnesota's new health insurance exchange is struggling with a backlog of people making changes to coverage through the online marketplace.

State, county and health exchange officials tell the St. Paul Pioneer Press the MNsure system has made recording of "life events," including births, marriages and address changes, a slow and difficult process. In Dakota County, it took months for nearly 80 new moms to get their infants added to their insurance.

Officials have been able to make swifter changes in emergency situations, but the system is still "unacceptable in terms of the service that we're able to provide consumers," said Chuck Johnson of the Minnesota Department of Human Services, which runs the state's public health insurance programs.

"I think we under-appreciated the amount of work it was going to take to get life changes up and running," said Katie Burns, chief operating officer at MNsure. "I think the hope was we would be able to do this earlier in 2014, and we're still not there."

MNsure plans to hire 15 additional employees to help address a backlog of thousands of changes.

"This is unacceptable, and we would not want any family to have to wait to add a newborn, or to have any life event processed," said Jenni Bowring-McDonough, a MNsure spokeswoman. "When it's brought to our attention, we absolutely try to process that as quickly as possible."

But state health care officials, including Johnson and Burns, said only some of the current backlog cases are thought to involve babies.

MNsure was launched last year to implement the federal Affordable Care Act. The original goal of the state's new system was to cover 1.3 million Minnesotans by 2016. Due in part to the problems with life events, officials have decided to delay some switches to the MNsure system that were expected this fall.

"We're extending out the timeline," Johnson said. "One (reason) is life events, and that we're not as far along in that as we'd like to be."

The backlog is also creating problems for the upcoming enrollment period for the renewal of commercial policies. But Minnesota isn't alone in its health insurance struggles, Johnson said.

"Every state is struggling with life events — it's a common problem," he said. "It's one of those things that wasn't necessary to get the (exchange) up and running on Oct. 1. ... Now, everyone is struggling to figure out how to get that functionality working."